Monday, January 26, 2015

College Football Playoff being pressured to move dates of future games by ESPN and the NFL.

ESPN and the NFL are reportedly trying to force the College Football Playoff to move its scheduled date of the 2015 playoff games from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2, 2016.

The Sports Business Journal is reporting that ESPN is wanting the CFP to move the dates of the playoff-hosting bowls, the Cotton Bowl and the Orange Bowl, from New Years Day to Jan. 2, 2016. This is reportedly out of concern that they will be competing with the New Years countdown shows, which would assumably include Dick Clark's Rocking New Years Eve on ABC. (Both ESPN and ABC are owned by Disney.)

The NFL, on the other hand, is looking to expand its playoffs, and is eyeing playing one of the games on a Monday night. That would conflict with the CFP title game, which is also scheduled for Monday nights through the 2025-2026 season.

So far, the CFP, and its executive director, Bill Hancock, aren't backing down. “We’ve started a new tradition and we don’t want to back away from it now," Hancock said.

The CFP seems determined to stick to its schedule, but it will be interesting to see if it can withstand the pressure from arguably the two powerful forces in sports.